The scuba diver social network that could save your life
See the original posting on The Verge
For divers swimming hundreds of feet beneath the ocean’s surface, communication is a notorious challenge. Crews have developed an extensive language of hand signals to express their needs, but they’re hampered by one obvious caveat: the signals rely on people looking at each other. A flat hand making a cutting motion at a throat to indicate “I’m running out of air” is no good if your dive partner is distracted by a shoal of fish. Such challenges help explain why suffocation is the leading cause of diving fatalities, alongside being trapped in underwater caves or wrecks and equipment defects.